If you need glasses or contact lenses, it is a compulsory requirement to wear these whenever you are behind the wheel. The DVLA must be informed if you suffer from any problem that may affect your vision, if it is affecting your whole field of vision (being that it affects either both eyes, or your remaining eye if you only have one functioning eye). Failure to provide this information could result in you being prosecuted.

The exceptions to this are if you are long-sighted or short-sighted, or if you suffer from colour blindness.

The rules for the Standards of Vision for Driving state that you must be able to read a car number plate from 20 metres away – with or without glasses or contact lenses. These rules do differ slightly for Lorry and Bus drivers.

Your eyesight will be tested at the start of your practical driving test. If you fail to meet the minimum required standard for your eyesight, you will fail the whole of your practical test. Your licence will be revoked, and you will have to take an eyesight test with the DSA at a driving test centre, as well as having to re-take the eyesight test at the start of your practical driving test the next time.

If you are worried about your eyesight, see your optician for an evaluation and any treatment that may be necessary.

Safe driving from Britannia!

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A recent study undertaken has shown that car accidents related to the dreaded “Blind Spot” have increased by almost 50% – in a matter of just two years.

The study of 50,000 car crashes between 2009 and 2011 has shown a dramatic 48% rise in accidents caused by drivers not properly checking their blind spots.

Experts say that this shocking figure is also completely avoidable – if only motorists would learn how to correctly check their cars for blind spots.

Drivers are advised to carefully position their mirrors in order to minimise the existence of these fields of poor sight as much as possible, by having each side mirror reflecting as little of your own car as possible, with the main rear-view mirror giving a perfectly straight view of what is directly behind your own car at all times.

By doing this, you should maximise your field of view, and minimise the potential risks of any accidents.

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Two in three of drivers in the UK are not aware that oil decreases in efficiency over time, and the majority do not even think about checking their oil.

Almost 22 million drivers in the UK (of which there are just 34 million motorists) cause considerable damage to their car that would otherwise have been easily avoidable if they had spent just a few moments to check their oil level.

Over 10% of the UK’s driving population believe it is okay to wait for three years before checking the oil – causing highly expensive and often irreparable damage to their engine. Research also shows that over a million would never check or change their cars oil.

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A senior driving instructor has suggested that bad driving habits picked up from years of driving will influence the way your children drive… and urged parents to become better drivers for the sake of their children.

Malcolm Hearsey, a retired instructor from Bolton, Greater Manchester, has said that poor behaviour behind the wheel, such as not completing the Cockpit Drill, or even driving on the phone or without a seatbelt, tend to influence the behaviour of children as passengers later into life when they themselves begin their lessons and start driving.

Hearsey has said that many of his former protégés would often question his instructions against the practices of their parents, with “Dad doesn’t do this” and other similar statements as a common phrase heard during his instructing years.

With more and more parents also opting to give their children driving lessons themselves to avoid the expense of driving lessons, young drivers are much more likely to absorb bad habits, with their parents as a stronger role model than a driving instructor.

Hearsey has implored parents to reconsider their behaviour behind the wheel, and to remember that they are supposed to be setting an example to their children.

Hearsey also praises individual stories of parents taking advanced driving courses in order for them to iron out their own bad habits before starting to teach their children.

So if you’re a parent planning to teach your offspring to drive… you should probably make sure you’re doing everything right first.

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